The Drowsy Chaperone

This wonderful show has some very questioning choices dealing with sequence throughout the course of events through the piece. Underneath all of this sequence mess is also some underlying irony, even dramatic irony. This includes the fact that the both the gangsters and Kitty knew of the plan to stop the wedding, yet no other characters at all were aware of this. Regarding sequence, I find it important to maintain fluidity and understanding throughout a play. In the opening scene, Ms. Tottendale and Underling are discussing Mrs. Tottendale's dress. Not soon after, basically all of the guests were thrilled at this event, this wedding. This shows just how big a wedding is to these people and how much it means to everyone. Not everyone was happy though. Feldzieg mentions to Kitty how mad he is at Janet for leaving her career behind in order to have a wedding and get married. One last example of irony is the relationship that eventually grew between Ms. Tottingdale and Underling. Throughout the majority of the show, no hints or clues at all are dropped at them having something going on. I was actually somewhat shocked once I found out their actual relationship and all!

Three Viewings

I noticed quite a few themes in Three Viewings, The one that stood out to me the most was the fact that they all included going to The Green Mill. I liked how they all went to the same luncheon and had the chance, but never actually did, run into one another and realize that they have connections within and between one another. Each of the three characters, in their monolgues, were mourning their dead. I found it funny how the whole 'mourning' and 'death' thing was never the central focus or point of their monologues in general. These deaths only brought up more upcoming and rising issues in their lives, that seemed to be pre-occupying them all, and to be constantly circling their mind rather than really coming to realize that they just lost someone. I found that quite interesting.

On the Verge

I feel that language is so crucial and vital to this show. If I were to be designing this poster, the background would be very simple, almost looking like a very dry environment, sandy maybe, almost like a desert- very safari like. I would want there to be a girly safari hat, period hat of course, and I would want it to be placed in the middle of this dry background, like laying in the sand. I would find this a very interesting poster, especially if I had no idea of what the show was at all about. I would like, placed a little more discretely, an eggbeater and victorian like umbrella placed in the left and right corners of the poster. These different objects would be subtle hints as to what the show is actually about, and possibly spark some interest and curiousity of it all!

Fires in the Mirror

Even though the first few monologues in Fires in the Mirror are not directly related to the Crown Heights Riot, the audience is still given an idea as to the opponents and their culture. The audience basically gets a glimpse of both the world of the blacks and the Jews beforehand and they kind of get and idea for both sides. They can have an open mind. These monologues also remind the viewers that within both cultures are people. These monolgues show that they are all people, who share similiar characteristics, thoughts, and views, no matter how different people say they are. Al Sharpton recites a monolgue about his hair and following his monologue is one from Rivkah Siegal speaking of hair and how her wigs are so important to her. This topic of hair, in a way, connects these two very different people. It links them together. I believe that all the monologues placed in this show should remain in the show and exactly where they are. Even though some topics may cause controversy, they way and order of which they are laid out, they flow nicely and wokr together.

COMMENTS :)

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Detroit

Detroit, not too terribly long ago, was a thriving city in which many working people desired to live in and work. Everyone aspired to be living 'The American Dream', to have  a successful job, beautiful family and home. Unfortunately, all the charm and wonderful living environment that Detroit supplies has gone way down hill. So, the play does not mention at one point at all anything regarding Detroit. I think what D'Amour is striving to get across is the fact that the American Dream is still something going on, there is no specific place or time it belongs in. It is a constant aspiration to people across the nation. Detroit is just a prime example of exactly this. There are thousands of people working hard to put food on their table for their family who could get laid off tomorrow. It is a real and current thing and this could happen to anyone, anywhere.

Buried Child

Buried Child is a very realistic play. The play centers around a pretty average family with characters that most people are familiar with or may even live with. This show has so much ambiguity tied up within it, which sets it apart from other realism-set plays we have come into contact with this semester.What really throws me off, though is the fact that you never really find out who the buried child is. The amount of ambiguity we see in this show is SO much more than what we have seen in any other realistic play thus far. The play starts off with what appears as a normal couple. As they readers keep reading and the story progresses, they can tell that there is obviously a secret hidden. Vince eventually drinks himself into an insane and drunk state, you wonder if he does this to receive credit, attention, or maybe even recognition from his family. It was also hinted at that Vince himself could possibly very well be the 'buried child', that is until Tilden walks in with this buried child in hand after digging him up.

Noises Off

In Noises Off, there are quite a handful of motifs that do come to mind. One motif in particular is order. Throughout the whole course of this show, there is no sense of order, almost a lack of communication. These characters are in a constant struggle of trying to restore some bit of order back to their production of ' Nothing On'.This restore of order proves not successful which eventually brings the characters close to insanity and leads them to fighting with each other over everything they possibly can argue over.I feel that a wonderful tagline for this show would be a line of Llyod's in the show, " And on we blindly stumble!" This tagline not only supports the chaos going on amongst their show, "Nothing On", but also the whole course of Noises Off itself. In each act, not only do the actor's performances become more and more crazy but as well as their states of mind. With an immense desperation to restore order in what mess they are in, a total downfall occurs with Act III.

The Glass of Water

Finding the specific protagonist for this play was a rather difficult task. Since there are primarily 5 central characters with specific storylines following each, it was a struggle to pinpoint who is the real protagonist.I believe that this play is a play centered mainly around love, rather than the conflict of 'war' itself. With this story of love comes the essential question of 'Will Abigail and Masham end up together and in love?' I don't always believe that whatever character receives more stage time is necessarily the protagonist. The audience gets a strong admiration for Abigail and Masham as a couple and as individual characters. Even though characters such as Bolingbrook receive more overall stage time, I feel that Abigail is more of the protagonist if the play. The audience can connect easier and have more empathy of her real situations. I feel that Scribe wanted the readers and audience to root and cheer for Abigail ( and Masham) more so as a team. Scribe maybe wanted us to root for a successful relationship between the two.Even though I believe that Abigail is the most 'protagonist' like character in this play, I don't feel that pinpointing a protagonist is necessarily important in this play. The plethora of conflicts and situations revolving around each character, when they come together- that produces a strong and powerful story.

Prompt 5 on Hornby

We are currently discussing 'motifs', any certain form of repitition through either lines, images, or even patterns of text. Unlike in 'Conduct of Life', the scenes in 'How I Learned to Drive' are not so very abrupt within transition from one to another, they have more of a pattern- more of a Gear/Car related transition that works between each scene. These 'directions' that Vogel is taking, I would like to think of then as a motif, a certain pattern kept up with throughout the course of the play.
Some of these 'gear transitions' do repeat, such as 'You and the Reverse Gear', this is repeated quite a bit in fact. I believe these are placed where the story seems to take a transition back a few years. The last 'gear' is 'Driving in Today's World'. This takes more of a personal and intimate touch, L'il Bit is no longer being given a command or instruction, but rather she is literally driving today in her own world. The use of these gear transitions was very creative, I love how they not only related with L'il Bit literally learning how to drive, but L'il Bit growing up as a young women and coming into her own. With both driving and growing up comes the obstacles and struggles, as well as the maturity and growth and eventual realization of yourself and the world around you. These gears as motifs were basically a foreshadowing of L'il Bit and her life as we watch it unfold.
Last night, I spent my Friday night being a typical single college girl watching 'P.S. I Love You' while eating with my besties Ben & Jerry. This movie always tears me apart, I mean waterworks. In the movie, Hilary Swank's character, Holly, keeps getting these beautiful love letters from her deceased husband (he planned it before his death duhhh) and he always ends them with 'P.S. I Love You'. Now after about the third or so letter, you know what to expect at the end of each, but I feel like knowing that almost draws you in more as you watch it! This motif was such a beautifully placed and exceptionally moving one. Although it was expected, it really made the flow of the story just beautiful and very personal. At the closing of this movie, Holly receives her last letter. At the end of the letter, it reads 'P.S. You know what'. I love how they changed it up a bit! I mean we all know what, but it just makes him have that much more voice and wraps up the story very nicely!
Yes, a motif is very different in a fully realized production over than in a script. Within a script, the reader is reading and taking in everything on his own and putting the pieces together by what they see in their head with what they are exactly reading. The motif would be much more noticable to catch and realize. When watching a fully realized production, there are many different distractions that may get int the way of discovering the motif itself. The full production coming together is a combination of many different fields: technical to emotional. The motif may not be as clear here.

Prompt 4 on Vogel

In Vogel's play, 'How I Learned to Drive', very controversial and uncomfortable situations take place. In order to almost counteract and sort of sway away from the uncomfortable audience, a male and female Greek Chorus were added to play as more comical and lighter characters. The two main characters, Li'l Bit and Uncle Peck are the only two characters not portrayed by the Greek Choruses. Having a set of characters, such as the Greek Chorus, gives the extra detail and sort of establishes the full story. The characters' interaction with L'il Bit or Uncle Peck give us an idea as to how they react around others and not just around each other, which is good to observe. Vogel could have simply written the play with only L'il Bit and Uncle Peck. This, without the Greek Choruses, would leave out very important pieces of the story. With the choruses, the audience finds out that both the Mother and Aunt Mary know (or are at least very suspicious, Other characters, such as the teenager girls at her school, prove just how much more mature (physically, mentally, and emotionally) that L'il Bit was as a young girl. With the presence of these Greek Chorus characters, the audience gets to peek a bit more into the personal relationships of L'il Bit and her family, as well as Uncle Peck. The Greek Choruses also can break that slight awkwardness that an intimate scene Uncle Peck may have with a young L'il Bit. Overall, the Greek Choruses are very vital to the storyline and how the audience actually understands it.
I'm just very curious as to the fact that Aunt Mary knows from the get go what exactly is going on between L'il Bit and her husband, yet refuses to stop it herself. She insists on waiting it out and relies on her patience. I'm just confused as to why Vogel didn't give Aunt Mary more of a backbone. She knows what is going on and how it is not right, but insists on leaving it be. I thought about this for sometime and eventually came to some conclusions. This family, as mentioned, never really seemed to have the best of luck with men. Both Grandma and Aunt Mary still (technically) have the men present in their lives. Although not very happy, this is still good to them. They tend to act a bit more reserved and conservative than L'il Bit's mom, who is without a man. These women remain more reserved and held back. Just like them, when around a man (Uncle Peck), L'il Bit generally gave in and did what Uncle Peck told her to do. I believe both Aunt Mary and Uncle Peck have fallen out of love, possibly never even were in love. But I find it interesting how Aunt Mary can sense the love she is lacking between L'il Bit and Uncle Peck and simply refrain from tampering with it. Vogel wrote her as a very selfless and easily manipulated character. This type of women is not what Uncle Peck had ever wanted, but he had strived for a more fire-minded or fire-headed one, like L'il Bit herself.

The Conduct of Life

In 'The Conduct of Life', the audience is left with a lack of detail and information on the characters or overall story. Maria's writing delivers more of a raw and tension-filled story line, with short yet gripping scenes. A certain dramaturgical route that was selected to take dealt mainly with empathy. It is quite difficult to relate or have any connection to a story unless there is some sort of emotion pull or somewhat relatable circumstance. Maria chose to stage this story in a more personal, intimate, and very raw fashion. For example, the more personal scenes with the dialogue between Olimpia and Nena are very likely to draw the audience in closer and certainly spark some empathetic connections from the audience. Maria could have completely cut those heart-felt scenes out, but chose to keep them and stage them near the end of the story. This way,  the audience gets a full picture of just how beautiful of a person Nena is and really has them (as spectators) picking a side. Nena, being only 12 shows great wisdom far beyond her years, " ...And if someone should treat me unkindly, I should not blind myself with rage, but I should see them and receive them, since maybe they are in worse pain than me."  I believe that Fornes decided to put these more lengthy and internally based monologues in the script because it really gets the audience feeling confident in the story line and how they feel about it. They pick a side and wholeheartedly support it. When setting a play on more of a raw and emotional manner, the playwright risks a bunch but also has the ability and potential to gain even more. By going on this sympathy-drawn route, Maria, I believe, has the power to gain the complete and utter vulnerability, emotions, and consciousness of the audience. With this raw and very extreme emotion, the characters have those powerful words to work off of from. These haunting monologues make for a very memorable and heart wrenching story line and set of characters. Overall, I believe how Maria is telling 'The Conduct of Life' is just about as raw and real as it should be, and that is moving.

Trifles

In Susan Glaspell's one act play, 'Trifles', lies a very mysterious plot and some very interesting and emotional characters. If the department decided to take on this play and give it a more simple and abstract take, I feel that it would be quite successful. I am always drawn to abstract plays, as a spectator and actor, because I almost add the details and other characteristics to the set and the characters myself. This take on the play does give the audience a bit more freedom with their imaginations, and also gives them a deeper look at the raw emotion and words spoken and channeled throughout the production. This proposal would give the audience a more simplistic and different take on this piece of work.
There are also some cons this proposal would end up facing as well. As much as I love the abstract take on shows, I do not feel that it would be the most beneficial and fitting take. I feel like this play is based around this old lady, her dead husband, and a very creepy house. Mrs. Hale even states, "...I stayed away because it weren/t cheerful..." Clearly this house is not a home. I feel that while doing an abstact version of this show, you are almost dismissing a chunk of the emotion the audience could end up feeling. Without the upstaging of very intricate costumes or lively set pieces, the audience can surely grasp the emotion the characters are bringing through. I do feel, though, that it would be more entertaining with a beautiful set,costumes, and props, especially considering the small time limit. With that little bit of time you have with the audience, why not fully transform the world around them?
Overall, yes, I can see a production of 'Trifles' set out in a very abstract way. I believe this performance would have the potential of being simply outstanding, but I think it would take some very hard effort. I just personally feel, a very detailed house and some specific costumes would put the audience more into the 'world of the show', rather than outside of it.

Overtones

While reading through this very quirky and different short play, I was eventually able to pick up on the breaks and 'rules' each character tended to follow. For example, the two main and more cultured characters are both Harriet and Margaret. These two characters interact with one another and are constantly battling the inner voices and their deepest most inner thoughts. The more inner voices and more primitive sort of characters are Hetty and Maggie.
An example as to how these different rules are set out would be the fact that Harriet cannot hear or even see the Maggie character, and Margaret cannot either see or hear the Hetty character.
You can see just how much the characters Hetty and Maggie end up influencing both Harriet and Margaret in the long run. For example, Harriet had left John Caldwell because she, at the time, had felt like he was far too much of a 'poor gamble at the time'. The character Hetty, Harriet's more primitive self, bashes on Harriet for leaving John and claims that she (Hetty) might have married John if it weren't for Harriet's actions. Hetty influences Harriet to say sort of subtle things that may make Margaret jealous of her current 'braggable' lifestyle. Hetty eventually gets Harriet to mention, "...There are always a great many people buying it at Harper's. I sat in my automobile fifteen minutes this morning waiting for my chauffeur to get it." Harriet originally states at the beginning as to how she is the more educated self and should not act in any rude or inappropriate ways.
Margaret was also very influenced by her other self, Maggie. Margaret and her husband, John, are actually starving and are in need of money. Maggie voices to Margaret how her and her husband are truly hungry and cannot make a living. Margaret continues onto Harriet as if her life is full, rich, and everything is perfect. Margaret was persuaded by Maggie to allure Harriet into buying a painting.
In conclusion, these two women were ultimately controlled by their more primitive and true feelings, their other selves. At different points, even without seeing the staging on print, the audience should be able to tell who can hear who and who can see who. It is written very clearly, and once you have seen the first few pages, you can get a feeling as to who is speaking to who. So, there are no really overall and set rules, but I feel like the majority of the time Margaret and Harriet were both somewhat dependent and controlled by their other selves.

The Beginnings of a Blog

Hello all of you Theatre People! This is the exciting start to my blog for Theatre 2130 with the ever so amazing J Fletch! Follow me & let's get to blogging :)